this morning at a bp gas field in response to france's military --theobamaadministrationwasquick to react. the u.s. official told me this afternoon that as of now the attack appeared organized. as we have been reporting for many months al qaeda inspired and linked groups are flourishing. we spoke to a military leader in the islamist group which has taken over and terized northern mali. he is working with one of the most senior leaders in africa who has claimed responsibility for today's attack. the fate of the hostages, they are at risk because things have to change. we cover the story from every angle and we will be speaking with mike rogers and chairman ed rice. we begin with cnn pentagon correspondent. this has been developing throughout the day and we have been struggling to chase this down and get the details. the u.s. government says it is taking the lead on the hostage situation. what is it doing tonight to make sure that the americans being held hostage are safe. >> the first thing they gave was to get satellite surveillance over that area which means that the fbi can now monitor

to france military offensive.theobamaadministrationwasquick to react. leon panetta called it a terrorist attack. a u.s. official told me as of now the attack appeared organized, not spontaneous. al qaeda linked groups are flourishing. we spoke to a leader in the islamic group. he is working with one of al qaeda's most senior leaders, mokhtar mel mokhtar. >> the fate of these hostages, they are at risk, because things have to change. that's what he said. tonight, we cover the story from every angle. we will be speaking with mike rogers and ed royce. >>> we begin with cnn pentagon correspondent, chris lawrence. obviously, this has been developing throughout the day. we have been struggling to chase this down and get the details. the u.s. government says it is taking the lead on the hostage situation. what is it doing to make sure the americans who are being held hostage are safe? >> erin, the first thing they did was to get some satellite surveillance over that area which means that the fbi can now monitor to some extent what is happening on the grown. the next thing the u.s

they will pose a threat.theobamaadministrationtosay this was a terrorist attack immediately. are they doing a good job handling this one? >> it is too early to tell. this is a difficult one. i'm not going to say that. when you have a group like this that is clearly well-organized, i think it was pre-planned, that had this much success with this many hostages. this is as hard a problem as it gets on the ground to unwind. the outcomes of these are not always great. that said, what we don't have is an overarching policy. this is what many of us have been talking about. mali is the first victim of libya, because of the weapon cashes that were raided and the inability of anyone to stop those weapons and people. you had tune you had tu nearbyians coming down. you have all of this converging together. it makes it a very, have he dangerous recipe. that's why you can't just handle mali or benghazi. you have to have an overarching plan that puts pressure on these groups. you can't just fire a few missiles and pack up and go home and hope for the best. it is not going to work. this is a can of worms.

objection fortheobamaadministration, thepolicies they put forward and especially the gun control outlined the other day and it's interesting, to answer basic questions about his background, i'm not sure how relevant. it would change my view of his political ideas, which are wrong. but he deserves to be asked the questions and marjorie's point that he was vetted, but he was not vetted much by the press. the average person with the voting record in illinois as a state senator and the truth is most reporters felt in '08 and 2012 it was pretty important that this guy be elected president, a historic figure, good guy, one of us, academic and intellectual, they didn't do a deep dive on barack obama, very few hard-nose reporters in the campaigns, trust me, i was there. >> maybe not on the reporter side, but counter campaign side and they overturn any rock they can find to get dirt on him and given the birther movement and associated with that, there was a lot of accountability in the campaign. look, mitt romney didn't want to release his tax records, why would a politician give more inf

already increased the debt limit over $5 trillion intheobamaadministration, almosta 50% inkeys in the debt limit. let me also say we have had many several, temporary short-term increases in the de limit before there's been a more permanent long-term increase in 1987, 1990, 1996. it is not unprecedented, the action we're going to be taking today. with that, i yield two minutes to the distinguished member of the ways and means committee, the gentleman from washington state, mr. reichert. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. reichert: thank you, mr. speaker. let me see if i can simplify this a little bit. so there's three branches of government. two branches of the government have responsibility for the budget. and there's three piece to those two branches. the white house is one, the administration needs to produce a budget. the house republicans need to produce a budget. the senate democrats need to produce a budget. for the system to work. well, the president produced his budget. even though we may not agree with it on this side of the aisle

fortheobamaadministration, whichhas had a tense relationship with the right wing netanyahu government. >>> and here's a fun one. a big shake up at the top of the twitterverse. justin bieber now has the most twitter followers in the world, surpassing the previous title holder. who would that be? lady gaga. at last count, twitter has 33,351,695 people hanging on his every tweet, pushing gaga into second place, followed by rihanna, katy perry, president obama, and closely thereafter, wolf blitzer. @katebaldwin, @wolfblitzer. we'll pick up a few right now. >>> a vicious second term agenda. could democrats be the biggest obstacle for president obama. we'll ask the chair of the democratic party, representative debbie wasserman schultz. she's standing by live. officemax can help you drive supply costs down... and down. use your maxperks card and get a 10-ream case of officemax multiuse paper for just 4.99 after maxperks rewards. find thousands of big deals now... at officemax. trying to find a better job can likbe frustrating.gs, so at university of phoenix we're working with a growing list

of that effort, and we will be. >> and what is the united states government,theobamaadministrationwillingto do to be part of that effort of the french invasion of mali? >> well, you know, it's important to see an international effort. there are european countries that will be helping on training and other steps. and the united states is helping as well. we're helping on airlift and intelligence support. we'll look at other ways to try to provide assistance, as well as training. this has to be an international effort, because frankly, al-queda is an international threat. the best way to handle this now is to have all of these countries working together to do everything we can to stop al-queda. >> mr. secretary, you do not imagine u.s. fighting forces being involved in mali alongside the french at this point? >> no, i don't see troops on the ground. but i do see the kind of assistance that will help the french and ultimately help the african nation go into mali and really provide more permanent security there. >> what are some of the national security threats over the next four years and n

obamapreparesto kickoff the second concern there is growing concern overtheadministration's recentlyoutlined plan to rewrite the nation's gun laws. beginning with a campaign style tour to drum up support. doug, is the president's campaign-like approach to all of this a response to the tough partisan realities on capitol hill? >> that is a good statement. for example, republican senator rand paul has vowed to introduce legislation to nullify the president's 23 executive actions he signed last week. he says the founders did not want the president to become a king. senator feinstein's plan to introduce a new assault weapons and extended magazine ban is facing daunting obstacles. >> i don't think senator harry reid brings it to the senate floor because he has six democrats up for election in two years in states where the president received fewer than 42 percent of the votes. >> leader harry reid will make guns one of the earliest things we consider. chairman leahy has talked about hearings right away. we will see action quickly. >> there are 20 democratic senate seats up for grabs in 20